Something nobody expected to happen this summer just got a whole lot more real. Just days ago, the team at Android Authority dug through the latest Google Wear OS app update and pulled out three codenames sitting right there in the code: “Fresh 9,” “Wise 9,” and “Project V2.” If you know Samsung’s internal naming history, those three strings basically tell the whole story.

The Galaxy Watch 9 is on its way, and it looks like it’s bringing the Classic variant along for the ride. And buried alongside those codenames is a second discovery that might be even more exciting, a strong hint that raise-to-talk, the Pixel Watch’s most loved feature, could be heading to Samsung’s watches far sooner than anyone expected.

What the codenames reveal isn’t subtle at all. Last year’s Galaxy Watch 8 carried the internal codename Fresh 8. The Watch 8 Classic was wise. 8. The Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025) went by Project X2. Now there’s Fresh 9, Wise 9, and Project V2, following that same pattern so cleanly that it’s hard to read it any other way. The detail that makes this particularly credible is where these names were found. They weren’t buried in a Samsung app or a leaked firmware file. They were sitting inside Google’s own Wear OS software, which suggests this lineup has moved well past early planning into something far more concrete.

What the Galaxy Watch 9 codenames tell us about this year’s lineup

The naming structure here is worth taking a moment to appreciate. Samsung has used the “Fresh” codename family for its standard Galaxy Watch models consistently since the brand switched to Wear OS, and “Wise” has tracked the Classic variants every time one has launched. Project V2 fits neatly as the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, given that the Galaxy Watch Ultra used “Project X2” internally and the refreshed Ultra in 2025 carries that same label. The 2026 Ultra getting a distinct “V2” designation slots perfectly into that logic.

I’ve been watching Samsung’s pre-launch leak cycle for a while now, and honestly, finding these codenames inside Google software rather than a Samsung app carries real weight. When a company like Google references a partner’s unreleased hardware in production code, it typically means final decisions have already been signed off. I changed my mind about how seriously to take this after sitting with it for a bit, because at first it seemed too early to draw conclusions from a few code strings. But the more I looked at the context, the more it felt like a real signal about what Samsung has locked in.

It’s also worth pointing out that this directly contradicts a piece Sammy Fans published just a few days earlier, which argued that Samsung’s historical smartwatch release cadence made a Galaxy Watch 9 Classic unlikely in 2026. The argument leaned on the company’s pattern of alternating Classic models, and it made sense on paper. The new code evidence suggests Samsung is planning to launch all three variants this year, the standard Watch 9, the Classic, and the Ultra 2, all in one go.

The Galaxy Watch 9’s raise-to-talk could break the Pixel Watch monopoly.

Here’s the detail that made me stop when I first read the Android Authority report, and I genuinely didn’t see it coming when I started researching this story. Alongside the watch codenames, the same researchers noticed something in the settings section of the updated Google code. The existing entry RttSettingsManagerPixelWatch now has a companion: RttSettingsManager3pWearOs. RTT stands for “raise-to-talk.” And that “3p” almost certainly means third party.

Raise-to-talk launched as a Pixel Watch 4 exclusive in 2025 and turned a lot of heads immediately. It lets you invoke Gemini by simply raising your wrist toward your face; no hot word, no button press, and no awkward two-handed tap required. You lift your wrist in the right direction, a blue Gemini animation fires up, and you’re ready to talk. Reviewers called it a genuine quality-of-life game-changer for voice interaction, and it’s easy to understand why. It replaces the most frustrating friction point in smartwatch AI with something that feels completely natural.

Why the “3p” label matters more than people are saying

What most of the coverage on this story hasn’t dwelled on long enough is the specific naming choice Google made here. If raise-to-talk were designed to remain a permanent Pixel Watch exclusive, there would be no reason to create a separate settings manager under a new label.

The existing RttSettingsManagerPixelWatch entry could simply have been updated. Creating a brand new entry that explicitly uses “3p” for third party is exactly the kind of architectural groundwork you lay before a broader rollout. That’s not an accidental string. That’s preparation, and it points pretty clearly toward raising-to-talk eventually landing on Galaxy Watch 9 hardware and potentially other Wear OS devices beyond Samsung’s.

Galaxy Watch 9 specs: what we know from the leaks.

The hardware picture is starting to come together from multiple sources. At MWC 2026 in March, Samsung officially confirmed that the next Galaxy Watch would use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. This is a 3nm processor built with a dedicated Hexagon NPU that Qualcomm says can run on-device AI models with up to two billion parameters. That’s a meaningful step up in wearable processing power, opening the door for features like real-time health coaching and smart replies to run locally without a cloud dependency.

There’s one conflicting data point worth flagging clearly. After Samsung’s MWC announcement, a separate report from GSMArena citing a tipster suggested the standard Galaxy Watch 9 might actually stay on the Exynos W1000, with the Snapdragon Wear Elite reserved specifically for the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. Samsung hasn’t addressed this directly.

Industry insiders hint that the Ultra 2 will also launch in a Bluetooth-only variant for European markets for the first time, dropping the LTE requirement that the original Ultra always carried. On sizing, the Galaxy Watch 9 is expected to come in 40mm and 44mm, and the 44mm model’s battery is tipped at 435mAh, which matches the Watch 8’s larger variant almost exactly.

Galaxy Watch 9 is expected at Samsung Unpacked in London on July 22

The summer launch window is pointing firmly at July 22. Multiple reports have placed Samsung’s next Unpacked event in London on that date, which would put the Galaxy Watch 9 series on stage alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8. Samsung has followed the foldables-plus-watches-at-summer-unpacked playbook for years now, and nothing in the current reporting suggests 2026 will break that pattern. Many believe an official announcement from Samsung on the event date is just weeks away at this point.

After spending time with everything that’s surfaced, I think the Galaxy Watch 9 lineup has a real chance of being one of the more compelling Samsung wearable releases in recent years. The Classic’s return settles a debate that’s been running since the Watch 7 skipped it entirely, and the raise-to-talk hint could quietly turn out to be the bigger story here. Getting Gemini interaction down to a single natural wrist gesture matters to anyone using their Galaxy Watch 9 as an actual AI tool day-to-day, and this summer’s Unpacked might be the first time that kind of experience leaves Pixel Watch territory.